Bound #1

The sex scene in Bound could be considered feminist, although you must read into the characters to come to this conclusion. Corky is considered to be butch because of how she looks; she wears work boots, short hair, no make-up, has dirty hands, and big pants, and Violet is considered to be femme because she wears make-up, tight dresses, high heels and has fixed hair all the time. But beyond their appearances, a bigger statement is being made in this film, one that blurs the boundaries of gender role stereotypes. This is because Violet, although femme, acts aggressively towards Corky, and truly plays a major role in the plot of the film. Corky is somewhat passive when Violet is so aggressively pursuing her sexual interest with Corky. The sex scene shows two people making love and changing between them the roles of â€œmasculineâ€? dominance and â€œfeminineâ€? subordination. They both pleasure each other, although one is more on top of the other, itâ€™s not clear dominance the entire time. After all, Violet is the one that makes the moves on Corky in the first place and asks if Corky has a bed somewhere... Like Kessler talks about in her article â€œBound Together,â€? the sex scene gives lesbian sex some visibility in mainstream media, which is very important. This is not very common, and the fact that there is no man involved and no phallic object really makes the scene eligible to represent accurate lesbian sex. It is a Hollywood film, so of course, the women are both beautiful and have great bodies, but besides that, I think that their exchanging of gender roles throughout the film, and specifically in the sex scene, illustrate that it can be considered a feminist film.